Dunne-za wisdom

"Knowledge, the elders say, empowers a person to live in this world with intelligence and understanding."

Quoted from Little Bit Know Something: Stories in a Language of Anthropology by Robin Ridington.

My mom is awesome

...because she brings me flowers :)

What have I been reading, you may be wondering....

I was fortunate to get at Teaching Assistantship this semester for Anthropology of Gender. The structure of the course has us reading seven books. The one I just completed is entitled "Tangled Routes: Women, Work and Globalization on the Tomato Trail" by Deborah Barndt. The book follows the trail of the corporate tomato from Mexico to Canadian fast food restaurants (McDonalds) and grocery stores (Loblaws). A little theory heavy and repetitive, but overall it has been enlightening in regards to answering "where does my food come from". She talks to women working in the various stages and highlights the engendered nature of the route of the tomato (basically, women are getting the shaft, being underpaid and undervalued; for example, Mexican pickers get about four dollars a day, while women in the supermarkets are reduced to unreliable shifts and low pay, which leads to a deterioration of family life in both cases). The discussion of the health of the people picking the tomatoes gave further reason to buy organic produce. At least if the businesses are producing organically, the workers will not be exposed to the harsh pesticides that predominate tomato production. Not that transporting tomatoes all the way from Mexico is great for the environment, but it makes sense to stop these poor workers from being exposed to possible carcinogens and other bad stuff. Just some food for thought on tomatoes.

Procrastination is much better than Ethnographic Methods and Prospectus Writing

In a successful attempt at procrastination (over an hour now), I have been surfing Vik's blog and come up with a few pictures of things I have been up to the last little while. And since Jeff isn't here this weekend, I can't post pictures of him without permission, so they are all of me :) Generally I hate pictures of myself, but Vik has managed to get some that are okay.

Visiting Calgary last May. This is the look you get when I know a picture is being taken...

Shambhala 2006 (notice the same hoodie in both pictures...I lost it at Shambhala, along with a bag of other stuff...only possessions, but it is still a bummer to lose all of your favorite clothes in one go). I think it was a sign that I shouldn't go back. Too many people and not good enough music). Any guesses what Jeff and I were talking about? Looks pretty serious :)

Vik's last visit. I am sampling espresso made by Jeff in Vik's new camping espresso cups. But much more interesting is the plant next to me. That is the biggest house plant that I have ever seen. His name is Pablo and he is on loan right now from Emilio, since he wouldn't do too well in the basement. I think he may be protesting being left with us, as he has fallen down twice since we got him.

A beautiful day...

You know it's been a long, cold winter when 6 degrees Celsius feels warm. But it did. And it was glorious. The sun was shining, I had the window in the office open while I was working. But I sure wish all of the puddles and ice would go away....wet feet suck. And falling on the ice sucks even more. Hopefully I make it through my long run tomorrow; the trails are pretty slippery in spots. As soon as the ice goes away I can ride this beautiful baby, too...

Life is pretty hectic right now, but looking at this peaceful
Buddha (from Sri Lanka) reminds me to be calm and mindful.

Vancouver

Here are some highlights from our trip to Vancouver last month....

Tom and Michelle were wonderful hosts - we got to go for two hikes
(I don't remember the names of the places).

I got some tree hugging in....

And we got to meet Beatrice!

We were able to explore a bit of downtown...

And we got the chance to ski at Whistler, which was amazing. I hadn't been skiing since high school, so it was great to have lots of easy runs that were still interesting for Jeff. The parabolic ski's were awesome, too.

Some more house changes....

Jeff and I decided to make some changes to our living room and dining room. Below is a picture of the living room with the new chair. Most people may not think this is exciting, but it is nice to be making the space our own. Now the living room has more space for people to sit and relax, so come on over!



Below is the dining room with the new table and chairs. Now we can have 10 people at one table - woohoo! I like to feed people. Thanks to Kevin and Lori - it was our Christmas present. Now we just have to get rid of the chandelier and get some red paint up there and it will feel more like a Marvin house.

Frucht Madness

So the reason that I haven't been posting is that I have been busy helping to organize the annual Frucht Memorial Lecture Series and conference. What is this amazing event, you ask? Angela, another organizer made a wonderful website telling all about it (click on the title of this post to check it out).

So if you live in Edmonton and would like to hear an interesting speaker on archaeology, come check it out!

Whitehorse

Since there have been a few complaints (you know who you are) that I haven't updated my blog in a while, I will load you up with pictures from my trip to Whitehorse and Skagway last October. Laura and I got a smoking deal to go for the weekend, so we had great adventures in the cold, almost white north. Click on the photo below to see the pictures that Laura worked laboriously to put on my web album.

Whitehorse-Skagway

To sum up the trip: We left on a Friday, flew into Whitehorse and then spent Saturday exploring the town, shopping and then we went to the outdoor hot springs (very nice). On Sunday we drove to Skagway, which was a beautiful drive. Since it was the end of the cruise ship season, Skagway was dead and the only other people we saw were people that had come up on the same deal. That suited us fine, since shopping with 3000 of my closest cruise ship buddies is not high on my list of fun. The border guards were so lonely, they held us up for about 15 minutes, just chatting. The American guard even asked if Laura and I were married. We came home on the Monday full of fun stories and lots of neat pictures. Enjoy!